Kathryn Stelmach Artuso (English) edited “Critical Insights: William Faulkner” (Salem Press), which includes an essay by Karen Andrews (English), “‘The Past is Never Dead’: Faulkner’s Relationship to Southern Culture and History.” Artuso also published “Irish Maternalism and Motherland in ‘Gone with the Wind’” in Mississippi Quarterly and “Transatlantic Rites of Passage in the Friendship and Fiction of Eudora Welty and Elizabeth Bowen” in “Rethinking the Irish in the American South.” She read “Mingling Manuscripts and Sewing Patterns: Male/Female Collaboration in Jean Toomer’s ‘Cane,’ and Willa Cather’s,‘The Professor’s House’”at the Western Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature.

John Blondell (theater) has three Shakespeare productions on three continents: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the National Theatre of Albania (October); “Henry VI, Part 3” at the International Festival in Puebla, Mexico, and Westmont (November); and “Henry VI, Part 3” at the International Shakespeare Festival in Beijing (with Lit Moon’s “Hamlet”; 2014). It’s the first time an American company and director will participate in the Beijing festival produced by the National Theatre of China.

Kristi Cantrell (chemistry) attended the National Science Foundation Medicinal Chemistry Workshop at the University of Minnesota in July.

Jason Cha (director of intercultural programs) and Omedi Ochieng (communication studies) co-chair the Westmont Faculty-Staff Diversity Network (FSDN), where faculty and staff of color can discuss diversity-related issues and support students of color and each other.

Stu Cleek (associate dean for residence life) and Lyndsay Grimm (assistant to residence life dean) delivered a national webinar for the Association for Christians in Student Development. “The E.P.I.C. Journey” discussed Westmont’s new approach to student conduct, which provides individualized and sequenced sanctions to enhance the educational success of students.

Jesse Covington (political science) presented “Religious Rights and the Definitional Problem: What Sociological Approaches Can and Cannot Accomplish for First Amendment Jurisprudence” at the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association in April.

Lisa DeBoer (art) organized and co-hosted a conference in May at Saint John’s University in Minnesota for the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program on the relationship between faith and academic vocation.

Charles Farhadian (religious studies) wrote an essay on sacredness for the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art’s fall exhibition, “Invisible Realms: Encountering the Sacred.” He participated in a consultation on worship at Oxford University last summer. He has been invited to participate in an event co-hosted by the Contending Modernities Initiative and the Social Science Research Council in New York on “Authority-Community-Identity” and the ways Catholic, Muslim and secular actors communicate the relationship among these three in Indonesia.

Robert Gundry (scholar-in-residence) contributed two articles to Books & Culture, “Frederick the Bruce” in January/February and “Josephus as a Pre-Raphaelite” in May/June. He released a collection of essays, “Extracurriculars: Teaching Christianly Outside of Class” (Blurb, 2012). He taught two series on Old Testament prophets at Santa Barbara churches and two seminars on “The Biblical Canon and Similar Higher Critical Questions” at UC Santa Barbara.

Cheri Larsen Hoeckley (English) wrote “The Dynamics of Poetics and Forgiveness in Adelaide Procter’s ‘Homeless’” for a special issue of Literature Compass on forgiveness and poetry.

Patti Hunter (mathematics) presented “Funding Science in the Cold War: Persuading the Ford Foundation” at a special session on the History of Mathematics in America at the fall eastern sectional meeting of the American Mathematical Society in Philadelphia.

Heather Keaney (history) published “Medieval Islamic Historiography: Remembering Rebellion” as part of Routledge’s Research in Medieval Studies.

Librarians Savannah Kelly, Molly Riley and Robin Lang gave a joint presentation, “Taming the Dragon: Refining Pedagogical Techniques through the Fire of One-Shot Library Instruction,” at the Association of Christian Librarians conference at Point Loma Nazarene University in June.

Tremper Longman III (Gundry professor of biblical studies) edited and contributed to the Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary (2013). He co-authored “Holy Land Moments” (Tyndale, 2013) with Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. His books, “Old Testament Introduction” and “Breaking the Idols of Your Heart,” have appeared in Chinese editions. He contributed an essay, “From Weeping to Rejoicing: Psalm 150 as a Conclusion to the Psalter,” to “Psalms: Language for All Seasons of the Soul” (Moody). Last summer, he taught: a seminary-level course for Young Life area and regional directors; a course on Genesis at Ambrose University College in Calgary; and a course on Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary.

Eileen McMahon McQuade (biology) published her sabbatical work, done in collaboration with colleagues at the UC San Francisco Diabetes Center, in the journal Immunity, “Extrathymic Aire-Expressing Cells Are a Distinct Bone Marrow-Derived Population that Induce Functional Inactivation of CD4+ T Cells.”

Christine Milner (kinesiology) serves on the executive board of the Christian Society for Kinesiology and attended its national conference at Baylor University in June.

Allan Nishimura (chemistry) has co-authored papers with students Nicole Grabe ’13, Brandon Driver ’14 and colleagues from Point Loma Nazarene University: “Effect of Simple Aliphatic Alcohol Thin Films on the Laser Induced Excimer Fluorescence Decay of Naphthalene on -Alumina During Temperature Programmed Desorption” in Advances in Applied Physics; and “Formation of Isotopically Mixed Excimers of Methylnaphthalenes by Vapor Deposition on -Alumina,” “Effect of Simple Aliphatic Alcohols on the Laser Induced Fluorescence Decay of 2-Methylnaphthalene on -Alumina During Temperature Programmed Desorption,” and “Effect of cis- and trans-decalin on the Laser Induced Fluorescence Decay of 2-Methylnaphthalene on -Alumina During Temperature Programmed Desorption” in the Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research.

Edd Noell (economics and business) presented “How Can Economic Gains Be Justified? Exploring the Institutional Context of Patristic and Ancient Roman Thought on Competition, Profits and Usury” at the History of Economics Society meetings at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in June. He will serve as a visiting faculty scholar in the history of economic thought at Duke University for his spring 2014 sabbatical. His research at Duke’s Center for the History of Political Economy will focus on the connection between the rise of modern market institutions and the evolution of Christian thinking with respect to profits, usury and exchange. He has also been accepted into the International Adam Smith Society.

Debra Quast (director of library and information services) is on the executive board of the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium.

Helen Rhee (religious studies) presented “Bringing Up Boys (Oh, and Girls, Too) According to John Chrysostom’s ‘De inanigloria,’” at the annual meeting of the North American Patristic Society in Chicago in May. Last summer, she taught “Wealth and Poverty in Christian History” at Bridgeworld College in Kenya. Her article, “Wealth, Business Activities, and Blurring of Christian Identity,” appears in Studia Patristica. She spoke about the centrality of almsgiving to Christian identity in the early church for the latest edition of the Mars Hill Audio Journal.

Marianne Robins (history) contributed a chapter, “I Wonder Why It Is That I Cannot Dance? Early-Modern French Suggestions for Bernard Roussel,” to the book “Bible, Histoire Etsociété Mélanges Offerts à Bernard Roussel.”

Steve Rogers (psychology) wrote a chapter, “Neuropsychology,” for the Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions (Springer). With two students, he gave three presentations at the American Psychological Convention in February, which focused on research exploring the religious symptoms of schizophrenia and the effects of exercise and leisure on the cognitive and emotional functioning of younger and older adults.

Sue Savage (art) and Marie Schoeff (art) displayed their work this fall at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art exhibit “Invisible Realms: Encountering the Sacred.” The show featured work from artists from many religious traditions and also recognized Savage, who retires in May 2014 after 15 years at Westmont.

Jeff Schloss (biology) co-edited a book, “Understanding Moral Sentiments: A Darwinian Perspective,” forthcoming from Transaction Publishers. He contributed an article, “Unpredicted Outcomes in the Games of Life,” to “Evolution Games and God: The Principle of Cooperation” (Harvard University Press). He co-wrote an essay, “Evolutionary Accounts of Religion and the Justification of Religious Belief,” for “Debating Christian Theism” (Oxford University Press). He gave the keynote address, “Religious Worship, Charismatic Experience, and Oxytocin-Mediated Signals of Commitment,” at the International Association for Cognitive Science of Religion in Berlin. At Colgate University, he delivered the Hartshorne Memorial Lecture in the Philosophy of Religion on “Evolutionary Theories of Religious Belief: Explaining or Explaining Away?” He debated Frans de Wall on the topic of “Morals Without God?” at a Veritas Forum at Emory University. He served as the faith-science coach for the Veritas Forum Fellows Program at MIT.

Michael Shasberger (music) conducted two concerts in Santa Barbara last summer: the West Coast Symphony on July 4 and the 47th annual Fiesta Symphony Concert. He also directed the Westmont College Choir at the North American Lutheran Conference in Pittsburgh. He and the Westmont Orchestra released a new CD, “Exploring New Worlds,” which includes two pieces by Emma Lou Diemer, composer-in-residence with the Santa Barbara Symphony, commissioned for the Westmont Orchestra and a recording by Daniel Gee ’13, “Fanfare on the Hymn Tune Hamburg.”

A paper by Russell Smelley (kinesiology), “The Value of a Written Coaching Philosophy,” was published in the proceedings of the ninth International Counsel for Coaching Excellence Convention in Durban, South Africa, in September.

Amanda Sparkman (biology) received a $3,500 grant from the Southern California Research Learning Center to support her summer research on snakes in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and on Santa Cruz Island. She and six of her general ecology students traveled to Santa Barbara Island to restore breeding habitats for two seabirds: the Scripps’s Murrelet and the Cassin’s Auklet. The Montrose Settlements Restoration Program sponsored the project.

Paul Willis (English) has published a new book of poetry, “Say This Prayer into the Past.”

Jane Wilson (education) produced a professional development video, “Intrinsically Motivational Activities: Finding Pleasure in Learning.” In July, she and student researcher Jenn Sanchez delivered a paper, “Overcoming Obstacles: Empowering Students with Growth and Grit” at the Association of Christian Schools International’s Higher Education Forum in Colorado Springs.

Rachel Winslow (sociology) presented a paper, “‘Citizens of the World?’: Debates over Childhood and Citizenship in the Wake of Operation Babylift,” at the Association of Research in Cultures of Young People’s Congress at the University of Victoria in June. She also contributed articles on mixed-race adoption, orphan trains and immigration policy to “The Social History of the American Family,” a SAGE reference work forthcoming in 2014.